THE CASTLE OF DUNDEE

The Castle of Dundee stood on the hill near the top of Castle Street, where St. Paul's Cathedral of the Episcopal Church in Scotland now stands. It was one of the principal fortresses in Scotland and played a prominent part in Scotland's War of Independence against Edward I of England and his son, Edward II. After the death of Alexander III, the government of the country was entrusted to guardians, who handed over the Castle of Dundee to Gilbert de Umfraville, Earl of Angus. When Edward I started his inquiry into the rights of the claimants to the Scottish throne, he, not unnaturally, decided that pending his decision the main strongholds of Scotland should be handed over to some one who would hold them on his behalf. Otherwise his decision might be unenforceable without war. The Castle of Dundee was to be handed over to one, Brian, son of Alan, whom Edward appointed to be one of the guardians of Scotland, but Angus objected that, as he held from the Estates of Scotland, he could not hand over to any one without their consent, Eventually, however, he complied with Edward's order on receiving from him, on 19th June 1291, an order indemnifying him from the consequences of doing so. Just over a year later, on i8th November 1292, after Baliol had been declared King of Scots, Brian was ordered to hand the Castle over to him. On Baliol's capitulation to Edward in July 1296, the Castle of Dundee came again into the possession of the English.

Wallace now rose against Edward and he was besieging Dundee when he heard of the advance against him of Surrey's army from England. Leaving the burgesses of Dundee to carry on the investment of the Castle, he marched to meet, and defeat, Surrey at Stirling Bridge on nth September 1297. Returning to Dundee, lie took the Castle and conferred it on one of his principal supporters, Alexander called the "Skirmischur", whom, in the name of the King, John Baliol, he appointed hereditary Constable of the Castle of Dundee, by charter dated 2gth March 1298. This he did as a reward for Scrymgeour's services in, the war against the English and for carrying the standard of Scotland in battle, a service which he would last have performed at Stirling Bridge.

Alexander Scrymgeour came from Cupar, Fife. According to tradition, he carried the standard of Scotland by right of his descent from a knight of the name of Carron, on whom, and on whose heirs, King Alexander I (1107-1124) had conferred the right of carrying the royal standard in war, for services rendered to him during a rebellion of the men of Moray and the Mearns. The King's forces and the rebels were drawn up facing one another on opposite sides of the rivet Spey, and Carron, carrying the standard, led the royal army across the river and the rebels were defeated. The King also conferred on Carron the name of Skirmisher or Scrymgeour. This tradition may well be true, as Alexander I did quell a highland rebellion and Alexander Scrymgeour's grandfather, whose name was Caron, may well have been a descendant of the original standard bearer.

Besides the Constableship, Wallace's charter also conferred on Alexander Scrymgeour certain lands near Dundee, the lands known as "the high field to the north of the town, the acres of the West field that belonged to the King and the royal meadow." All these lands would be at Wallace's disposal, as Baliol would have inherited them from his great-grandfather, David, Earl of Huntingdon, who. c.i 180, received a grant of the barony of Dundee from his brother, King William the Lion. The high field presumably included the land where Dudhope Castle now stands. The West field long continued to be known by that name and included the area, just north of the West Port, where Blinshall Street, Guthrie Street and Session Street have since been built. The royal meadow is presumably the land formerly known as the Meadows, the name of which is perpetuated in Meadowside.

Alexander Scrymgeour did not hold his Castle for long, as. although King Edward retreated to Carlisle after his victory at Falkirk on 22nd July 1298, he left behind him a garrison in Dundee. This we know from an order, issued on 3oth October 1300, during a truce between England and France, which included Scotland, to the English garrisons in Perth, Dundee, Ayr and Banff to "keep themselves by truce as best they can till Pentecost next" (list May 1301), when the truce was to end. This, however, they failed to do. Alexander Scrymgeour recovered the Castle and had charters, dated nth July 1301 and 2oth June 1302, from John Baliol (who, though an exile in France, styled himself King of Scots) confirming him in the Constableship of Dundee and in the lands he had received from Wallace.

Alexander Scrymgeour continued as Constable of the Castle of Dundee, even after Edward I's complete subjugation of Scotland in 1303. On 30th November of that year he received from Robert Bruce, "Earl of Carrik and one of the guardians of the Kingdom of Scotland", the future King, in his own name and in the name of John Comyn the younger, another of the guardians, a precept of sasine directing the Sheriff and Bailies of Forfar, to put and maintain Alexander Scrymgeour in possession of the Constableship and lands in all respects in accordance with Wallace's grant. Bruce was at this time one of Edward's supporters and had considerable influence with him in the framing of his settlement of Scotland. He was one of those appointed by Edward to the Council which he set up to advise the Governor of Scotland. There is little doubt therefore, but that his precept would be respected.

When, after his coronation at Scone on 27th March 1306, Bruce took the field against Edward, he was at once joined by Alexander Scrymgeour. But at one of Brace's very first battles, when he was defeated at Methven on 19th June, Alexander Scrymgeour was taken prisoner. Six weeks later, on 4th August 1306, he, along with other prisoners taken in that battle, was hanged at Newcastle. After his defeat, Bruce fled to the West and the Castle of Dundee again fell into the hands of the English.

At the instigation of the King of France, a truce was declared between Scotland and England in May 1309. Sir Edmund de Hastings was then the Constable of the Castle of Dundee and in December King Edward sent a special message to the "Governor and Honourable Men of Dundee" exhorting them to defend the town against "his rebels" till the following Pentecost. It was during this truce that, on 24th February 1310, the bishops and other clergy, at a meeting of the National Council of Scotland held in the Greyfriars Church of Dundee, declared Robert Bruce to be the rightful King of Scots. In the following July, King Edward appointed Sir Alexander de Abernethy to be Governor of the country "between the Forth and the Mountanus" and himself invaded Scotland as far as Linlith-gow. Sir Alexander's headquarters were in Dundee, where he commanded the garrison.

Lists of the mounted men in some of the English garrisons in Scotland in 1311 have survived. The Dundee list contains 214 names against 123 in Perth, 86 in Linlithgow and only 36 in Stirling. Berwick, which was the advanced English base in Scotland, from which the other garrisons were fed, had, naturally, the largest number, 386, We have no information about foot soldiers, but they were much less important than mounted men. These figures show the importance of the Dundee garrison and of its Castle.

Sir Alexander Abernethy, the garrison commander, was, of course a Scot from Perthshire. The greater part of the garrison appear also to have been Scots. In many cases the nationality does not appear from the name, but there can be no doubt about Wemyss, Straton, Mudie, Lamberton, Fethie, Herries, Frisel, Ramsay, Lindsay, Melville. Lockhart, Comyn, Innerpeffer, Menteith, Grand, Abercromby, Hay, Johnstone, Fordyce, Fleming and Haldane. The nationality of others is obvious from their place of origin — Brechin, Penicuik, Ceres, Crail, Pitscottie, Strabolgi, North Berwick, Kirriemuir, the Pentlands, Dundemor, Balbrenny and Balcaski.

These Scots would be locally recruited, but the garrison was also reinforced from time to time by parties from Berwick. These parties were composed almost entirely of Englishmen and foreigners and the commanders of two of them were persons of distinction, with whom the English King corresponded direct, Sir Edmund de Hastings, who had been Constable two years before, and John de la Moille, a member of the royal household. These officers, with their retainers, who were, however, not very numerous, would help to strengthen the garrison. but their mission was probably largely political. With so many changing sides, King Edward must have been apprehensive about the loyalty of the garrison and would wish to have personal representatives on the spot, on whom he could rely. Another party of reinforcements was commanded by a Spaniard, Valentine Sanchez. One important person who was also a member of the garrison, was David de Brechin. King Robert's brother-in-law.

These reinforcements were needed in Dundee owing to the increasing Scottish pressure on the garrison. On the 9th October 1311, King Edward sent a special message to Sir Alexander de Abernethy, urging him to defend the town. Towards the end of the year, he was replaced as commander of the Dundee garrison by Sir William de Montfitchet, who had been one of the officers of the Perth garrison. On January 8th 1312 that garrison, which was also commanded by a Scotsman, Sir William Oliphant, and composed largely of Scots, capitulated to King Robert and about that time, after fierce fighting in which both sides took prisoners, Sir William de Montfitchet entered into an agreement to surrender Dundee. This, however, he was forbidden to do, on pain of death by dismemberment, by King Edward in an order dated 2nd March. Shortly afterwards Sir David de Brechin, who seems to have been jointly in command in Dundee with Montfitchet, was transferred to Berwick as commander there and one of his first jobs was to send reinforcements of horse and foot to Dundee. Three weeks later on 3rd May 1312, he was superseded, as Governor of Berwick by Sir Edward de Hastings, also from Dundee.